Page 4, India Continued

Main street, downtown Kalikivaou
Temple in town, notice the Christian and Hindu symbols at the top
A very expensive house, price?




Amma's Ayurveda hospital where I received help with my hearing loss
A very poor house made from plastic sack walls and tin roof, quite common here
View of the ashram high rise visitors quarters from across the backwater canal. See bridge in distance to right.
Commercial fishing boat
Sweet looking tour boat, love to have one for a house boat
Very polluted pond in village. This area has lots of surface water, ponds and canals that are grossly polluted. The people just wait for the monsoon rains to come and flush them all out to sea!
Ducks, yuck! in this pukie water!

4/1/12
After a couple months with Amma I started to feel a strong pull to visit my family in the States. I did manage to get on a waiting list to lease of a flat at the ashram but it will be at least a year till a flat is available. So why not visit home, kids and siblings, and give myself a year to reevaluate life in Hawaii? Several friends in Hawaii have been wanting me to come back and there are good opportunities there for me. I am getting weary of the challenges of life and the very foreign cultural hurdles that complicate things.
But before leaving I had to go see my buddy Fred in Sri Lanka. That was a goooood choice. Sri Lanka was a surprise. The island has charming, strong, proud, independent people, stunning beaches and a mountain terrain of tropical forests and lush green manicured tea plantations and rice farms. Fred was happy to see me and we had a meaningful exchange of stories to share from our adventures since our last connect in Mt Shasta. The quaint remnants of British colonialism were delightful to find.
Here's a few pictures you might enjoy:
The old (1850) British train taking me up into the mountains.

Village kitchen at a homestay

Village homestead

Family traveling on the train

Mountain scene

Cashews on tree

My transport from village to Colombo Airport

Elegant British Hotel from Colonial times
From Colombo I flew 15hours to Chicago, had a short pleasant visit with my cousin David Sheible and Kaye in the city. Then they put me on a train  to Williams Bay Wisconsin where I was met by my sister Beverly and her husband George. It was all a bit overwhelming to transit to what was now practically a foreign country to me combined with major jet lag. After a few days I started to get my ground back, the cars did not seem so big, the crispy cleanliness and orderly manicured home-sites of USA started to look familiar and I was enjoying being with family, eating apple pie and watching wild turkeys do there ritual dance in the fields. We all had a most amazing Easter dinner together at my brother Jonh's home nearby. the meal was almost all home grown and home cooked with love. John and I had a few days together with his family on their farm and we escaped for a day to cruise into Chicago and take in the lake shore scene where I used to lifeguard. Of course we had to partake in a Chicago style Italian seasoned roast beef  sandwich. I also got to see a classmate from my grade school, Bob Hoffman. That was indeed a pleasant unexpected  reunion after some 50 years or so. Our lives are quite different with him settled into a suburban home quite unlike our old in town Polish neighborhood, was enjoying a long time stable marriage with kids. I think we both could appreciate our different life style and have an inner smile about it. We managed to stay out of political and religious polemics!
From Wisconsin my next stop was Prescott Arizona where my brother Gerald and wife live. They recently moved into a lovely suburb there with amazing mountain views, forests and lakes and of course a plethora of franchise and chain stores in sprawling shopping malls.
I managed to shake off the jet lag by then thanks to the luxury and complimentary use of very well equipped fitness centers at both Gerald's place and Bev's. Then I was off to SanDiago to see my grandson, Isaiah , his mom and my son-in law.

4/16/2012

So here I am in the lobby of the 500 West Hotel right in the middle of downtown San Diago surrounded by ultramodern high rises and folks all decked out in their finest business apparel, suits and ties, tight flattering women's expensive designer apparel and restaurants where you can not eat even breakfast for less the $10! Wow do I really want to be in America aka Armagedon?! Sorry I am a bit jaded here.
 I did feel deeply moved by the Rock Church service that Shalisha , my amazing daughter, took me too last night. The church does ROCK with inspiring contemporary robust songs, the place was packed with sincere children of God, I must say. The sermon was about living from the heart rather then from the mind , a welcome message not unlike the message I try to convey in the meditation retreats that I teach.The music was executed in professional fashion , quite a pleasant contrast to the often squeaky, earsplitting, off key(by western ears) sounds that were blasted all over the even smallest little remote villages of India all day long.
We had a totally fun day yesterday at the zoo, with the delight of  my gandson filling our faces with smiles. This zoo is by far the most animal friendly and people pleasing I have ever seen anywhere. It was well worth the 40 bucks entry fee. I will soon be in Mt. Shasta to offer a three day meditation retreat from April 27-29. Hope to see some of you there. Here's the flyer:

Actually you do not need to register, just show up any time for all or part of the retreat, we already have enough regitrants to make it a GO! And there is plenty of room, thank you, see you there?

Thats it for now, more to come...